Let's get it right, this weekend. Everton are at home to Manchester City today, and it is important that Everton should win. So if your heart is not otherwise engaged, please cheer for them.

I spoke to my sister yesterday, over a bad line. She got sick on the flight over – probably a bug acquired from grandson Ted with whom she had been spending time in DC,,,

 ...and since arrival in London she has started a cold, so she sounded rather miserable. And London is having tube strikes (I didn't know that) which inhibit sight-seeing.

But the mended shawl has arrived, and she professes herself pleased with it, so I can now revel in the Unst Bridal Shawl with an even clearer conscience.

The end of round 73 is in sight, and all continues to go smoothly. The current set of motifs are as easy as the ones I was struggling with at Loch Fyne over Easter were difficult. I even think the Messy Corner is looking a bit better, but I certainly won't attempt this sort of thing again until I have mastered the Fleegle System for Garter Stitch in the Round.

I had an idea, yesterday.

I have mentioned that I am doing the Unst Bridal Shawl in a way which manages to deprive me of two pleasures. I knit the edging first, meaning to proceed inwards, and then got worried about the need to flip some of the border patterns – it was deep midwinter, cold and dark, and I didn't want to think, just to knit. So I laid the edging aside and knit the centre and proceeded outwards, thus losing the pleasure of gradually reducing the stitch count as I approached the centre and seeming to knit faster and faster.

But when I finish the borders, I will have to graft the edging on and I won't have the fun of knitting the edging onto the live stitches.

And my idea is, to do just that anyway, and keep the edging I have already knit for the Queen Ring Shawl which I will knit inwards.

The Unst Bridal Shall edging is a 12-row repeat whereas the Queen Ring one is 16. Unst starts with 23 stitches and increases to 29; Queen Ring goes from 19 to 25. I'll do a bit more thinking, but I'm sure only a very modest amount of fudging would be necessary, and also sure no one would notice that my Queen Ring Shawl had the wrong edging, or if they did, they would be too polite to mention it.

Zite indicates that a new IK is on its way, with an “interesting and novel” way to knit socks. I feel I should try that, to add another to the pack of techniques I tried recently during my Sock Year.

And Zite also says that today is Yarn Shop Day. I would venture into my local if I could be sure of finding a book or magazine to leave with. Knitting as I am at a rate of 25 grams per month means that exposing myself to the risk of stash-enhancement is to be avoided.

Non-knit

Greek Helen's husband David nearly stepped on a horned viper on Mt Pelion yesterday.